[Daryl Jones]

Mona and Lisa, Rudi and Michaela, there aren’t enough words to convey my thanks for what you all do for us here at eh MLT Club. I’ve only been around for a bit over a year, but in that time I have made some great friends, but especially in the four of you.
You give up your free time for us on these livestreams and do so much in the background to make the members happy. Sure, it’s a business too…but it is certainly more than that. I cannot think of any other musicians that would do that, and I have some friends in the business that certainly don’t. I know I speak for all of us when I say we appreciate everything you do. Yes, it’s about promoting the music, but you take it far beyond that.
From the bottom of my heart, thank-you for providing us with the absolute “grooviest” place on Earth!❤🎸🎼

[Daryl Jones]

This has nothing to do with scenery or lights and seasonal views really, but it does have a place in my Christmas. I love making “studnetz” (Ukrainian pan headcheese) and my own flavor of beef jerky (developed the recipe from using venison of all manners) so it’s my kitchen tradition as much as turkey and stuffing. Doggone, the kitchen smells good!

[Daryl Jones]

Great song Tim! The intro is good, but belies what comes out in the solo. That really cooks!

[Daryl Jones]

Jung, I really haven’t decided yet. But it will be fun just trying out the nuances of both the guitar and the amp. The board is a whole other animal. I have played the guitar at Josh’s place more than once, and it has a different neck profile and feel than either of my other two PRS guitars, but none of Paul’s creations are difficult to switch back and forth with. There’s less difference between this and my Custom than either of them to my Hollowbody. It has a hardtail bridge (no tremolo arm) so I’ll have more reason to rely on bends and vibrato technique. Not that I use the arm a whole lot, messes with tuning stability if you get stupid with them. They are fun though.😆

[Daryl Jones]

I forget his name, but the front man for Blues Traveller honked a mean blues harp. They lost a band member a few years ago, not sure but their drummer maybe.

[Daryl Jones]

Yep, “Sinter Klaus” came early to my house.
The amp is “only” 20 watts, but it’s incredible! Too many players think that if it’s not 100 watts it’s no good. I can’t even use my Katana 50w on anything over the 25w setting and usually when practicing in my room I’m on .5w. This one thankfully has an attenuator that drops the output to 2 watts. But the two channels (Clean and Overdrive) are more than I need in my little cave. The board is going to take some real getting used to, there’s so much in it already, that I think maybe a “wah” and a “delay” are all I’ll ever need really. Totally gig-able if I want to. And I used my Katana outdoors this past fall and that was plenty, this being a tube amp it’s plenty powerful enough for just about any hall around here. I can do Marshall sound, Mega Boogie, and the clean channel with the IFS is (I think) better/sharper than a Fender Twin Reverb Unless you’re in an arena setting.
As to the guitar itself it’s an almost new Paul Reed Smith S2 Mc Carty 594 Thinline. The Humbucker pickups are individually tap capable for single coil (think Stratocaster) and in humbucker mode they are very close to Les Paul territory. Not that there is anything wrong with my Custom 24, but this is just a big step up. It’s made in the Maryland factory so it’s in between the mega expensive “Core” line and my SE Custom/Hollowbody import builds. Even better when you consider it was way less coin than my Hollowbody was new. Josh bought it slightly used, and it certainly hasn’t been beat up in the year he’s had it. The amp he found on a crazy price too, had like one weekend of stage use on it, and it’s spotless, as is the effects board. If I was a good enough player, I could easily gig this setup with zero holdbacks. Why the bejeebers I didn’t take this up 50 years ago when I played keys with the guys I’ll never know. Youth is so wasted on the young…

[Daryl Jones]

Jung, that’s another one that is up at the top. I have a couple of his older albums that I used to play the heck out of: Harvest and After the Goldrush.

[Daryl Jones]

Awww.😢 What a sweetheart.

[Daryl Jones]

Hey no worries, it’s not like it’s a culinary world secret or anything.😅

[Daryl Jones]

Sorry Chris, I didn’t mean to keep anyone in the dark! I have made it several ways, but have never used the actual pig’s head in the process. There is a favorite sausage house in Edmonton that does do it that way though and I often buy their headcheese when I’m able to drop by.
I have used the hocks and feet, but most often these days I chop up and cook a boneless pork shoulder for the meat and substance. A whole boneless shoulder is often less costly than 3-4 hocks and a couple packs of split feet!
I cube the pork meat 2-3# for an average batch, a couple quarts of chicken broth, two tablespoons of crushed garlic, a teaspoon of crushed ginger, ground sea salt (or kosher if I have it) and pepper to taste but unless you use low sodium broth you need to be careful of the salt content. Bring the meat and broth to a slow rolling boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 hours. If using hocks and feet, then you have to remove them to de-bone and return the meat to the pot after shredding and cutting. If feet are included, there is usually enough of a reduction to get the headcheese to gel, but I always add a packet of powdered gelatin just in case; two envelopes if using boneless pork. I also add a tablespoon of rice vinegar and a pinch or two of dried dill weed. Ladle the cooked mixture into pans to cool and set. Usually the re is a payer of fat that collects on the top of the pans that needs to be skimmed off after the studnetz is cooled and set. Some people serve it with a drizzle of vinegar or will add diced pickle while ladling into pans a la Sulze type.
You can always add some extra spice/salt when serving if needed, but after a time you’ll find the right amounts during the cooking process.
Hope it works out for you.

[Daryl Jones]

Jung, I just sat down and started playing after the livestream. I warmed up the guitar a bit with some noodling along on some blues backing tracks playing clean with the voicing dialed up for some extra gain and then switched the amp over to the overdrive channel. Started off with “Cocaine” (hadn’t played that in over a year), then “Smoke on the Water”, hit up “Mustang Sally” (Commitments version) since I hadn’t played that in ages, and then “Mississippi Queen”. Got a bit more Canadian based and played Could Have Been A Lady, then American Woman (hey, the Guess Who are Canadian…). Then I tuned down to double drop D and hammered on Cinnamon Girl to see the difference from the last two days with the new axe and amp. God, I was in rock-out Heaven! I LOOOOVE this rig!!!

[Daryl Jones]

Sounds beautiful Chris! We hear some highway noise year round, it’s only about a kilometer (2/3 mile) as the crow flies so big trucks noise will carry through and the snow plow in the winter, occasional off road bikes, and of course open piped Harleys and such. Some boat traffic in the summer, but that isn’t really any louder than I get on the deck with my guitars.😉 And snowmobiles in winter, which I used to partake of myself.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by  Daryl Jones.

[Daryl Jones]

Cool, that will go on my list of collectibles haha.
Wonder if they did that in Neil’s signature “drop D” tuning…can bet Imma find out real quick!😉

[Daryl Jones]

Bummer, the video won’t activate/play. I’ll search it though…

[Daryl Jones]

Thanks Tim, and like I mentioned to Chris, we love it here. The fire is such a joy when the temps hit that crazy zone. When I was still working (typically 60 hours weekly) I got pretty tired of the maintenance workload, but now I really enjoy working in the yard again and have a whole list of things I want to do that I put off for the last 20 years. One of them being removing a whole whack of trees (yay for firewood) that have become a bit of a hinderance to both views and appearance. Not to mention the threat of falling damage. Some of those white poplar (you likely call them Aspen) bams are close to 70 feet tall! Lots of black poplar too (otherwise known as cottonwood but still an Aspen) on the lake-bank and they are just getting old and ugly, and they die off fairly young in comparison to the white. They burn OK, but leave a lot of ash without producing as much heat for what they cut up into. The wood is very porous and the centers are often hollow. Plus they leave those nasty sticky seed pods on everything in the spring, can ruin vehicle finishes, outdoor furniture and siding. White poplar is a hardwood and burns very well and doesn’t drop the stickys near so much. But they both run ground shoots from the root system and drop seed that spring up in the lawn. Really hard to control at times. Deciduous weeds haha.

• This reply was modified 11 months ago by  Daryl Jones.